Portrait of Walburga Black

"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers -"
-- Walburga Black's portrait (OP4)

A magical painting of Sirius Black’s horribly deranged mother, Walburga, resides in his old home at twelve, Grimmauld Place. Often when the doorbell rings, she starts screaming and ranting until someone closes the “moth-eaten velvet” curtains that surround her painting.

Walburga appears quite ill and possibly insane after the deaths of her son Regulus and husband Orion -- an old woman in a black cap with yellowed skin, her eyes rolling and drool coming from her mouth, not to mention the shrieking every time she wakes up (OP4).

The painting cannot be removed because of a Permanent Sticking Charm (OP5)

Harry inherited Grimmauld Place from Sirius after his death (HBP3), and it would seem that just like Kreacher the house-elf, Mrs. Black comes with the house (HBP3).

Commentary

Notes

Extremely reminiscent of the ugly - even scary - portraits of two menacing-looking D'Urberville women built into the wall of a dilapidated manor of one of Tess's D'Urberville ancestors in the novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. -BB